Cat Among the Pigeons  New Roomate  Franks POV
by liveforcolorx13
Summary: Cat Among the Pigeons when Cat arrives at Franks dorm room Franks POV.


**Hey fanfic. I hadn't seen this scene put on here so I thought I would do it. It is from 'Cat Among the Pigeons' when Cat arrives at Westminister to have Frank hide her. Sorry if it is not that good, but I am trying! Ready here we go! Remember to review if you want me to do more! (P.S. Sorry if this is not historically accurate)**

"Frank!Frank! Make yourself decent. You've got a visitor." I heard Charlie yelling from outside the door. I turned over to look at the clock mounted on the wall. It was only half past 6. Who the Hell would be visiting at this hour? I slowly got out of bed as Charlie entered the room speaking to someone.

"Lucky for you we share a set of rooms, you can't imagine how much trouble he'd be in if anyone else caught him with a . . . well with a _you know what _in his room un-chaperoned." He said, as I turned around rubbing my eyes.

"Who is it Charlie?" I asked, but was not supplied an answer due to the porter who entered the room.

"Everything all right Sir?" He asked Charlie.

"Yes, Mr. Jennings everything is perfectly in order." Charlie said as he stepped in front of a young boy who had appeared in our room. "I was just telling his lordship about the messenger."

"It's only that I thought I saw the little urchin giving you cheek down in the quad." Mr. Jennings said.

"No, No, he's been very respectful." Charlie said reassuringly. "We were just having a joke, that's all."

"Well, in that cause, I'll get on with my work." Mr. Jennings said heading towards the door.

"Yes, yes, you do that. Very good, very good." Charlie said quickly as the porter exited the room, shutting the door behind him.

"What's going on, Charlie?" I asked still not awake. "What's the messenger here for?"

"You'd better ask yourself. I must say I am rather intrigued to know the answer." Said Charlie.

I took a step closer to examine the messenger boy, and to my shock, and horror I realized it was Cat. "Damn and blast Cat, what are you doing here?" I swore, and grabbed a dressing gown to cover my indecent sleeping attire.

"I was rather hoping you'd let me warm up and have some breakfast." Cat said with big eyes as she looked longingly at the fire. "I've just spent the night on the tiles." She informed me.

"Good lord, Cat, you look frozen. " I said stepping towards her and grabbing her blue hands, and rubbing them in mine. "Charlie, get that blanket from my bed." I said quickly.

Charlie brought me the blanket and I wrapped it around the small shoulders, and couldn't help but notice she was shivering. Wrapping one arm around Cat I lead her to a seat in front of the fire. "Alright Cat. Now tell me what the Hell happened, and why you needed to show up at my school at six thirty in the morning." I demanded and Cat started her tale.

Twenty minutes later Charlie addressed Cat. "Miss Royal, you certainly are a most extraordinary young lady."

"You'd better drop the Miss Royal, sir." Cat said. "I'm a boy for the moment."

"In that case you'd better call me Charlie. Can't have you calling me 'sir' the whole time." Said Charlie laughing good naturedly.

"But what I we going to do about you Cat." I asked as I paced the hearth rug. "You can't stay here you know." For a moment I imagined the idea of hiding Cat out in my room for the next few months, and realized how much more fun school would be. I then imagined the scandal that would cause. I could already see the gossip columns headline, **"DUKE OF AVONS SON CAUGHT HOUSING A FEMALE CONVICT"** and dismissed the idea.

Cat nodded, and I continued. "We've got lessons this morning, Dame Clough, our house Matron; will be coming in and out to clean. And Charlie's brother is expected any moment."

"No need to worry about Tom. I've had word that he won't be here till after Christmas now. Still not over his bout of measles." Said Charlie turning to look at me, and I saw a mischievous glint in his eyes. "No it wouldn't work . . . I'm being foolish." He said and I caught his idea.

"I don't know." I said standing in front of Cat, and pulling her hair back into her cap, and inspecting her pale face. "If she's put in the college dorm we'd be stuffed but we could say your mother wants him to sleep in the same house as you because of his delicate health. He could have your room and we could share mine. No one's met him yet I assume?"

"No. Tom's been with a tutor in Dublin in for the past two years." Charlie responded.

"Well it's possible we'd get away with it then." I said.

"She'd have to arrive properly in a carriage with luggage and so on." Said Charlie.

"I can fix that." I assured.

"You're both mad!" Cat cut in. "I'd be found out in one second flat." She protested.

"Oh I don't know. You underestimate your acting powers Cat." I said. "I've seen you with Syd and the boys. It'd be fun to try wouldn't it?" I asked trying to appeal to her sense of adventure.

"But . . ." she responded meekly.

"And I can't turn you out can I?" I asked her in earnest. "Where would you go? You know better than me what can happen to girls on the streets." I tried not to imagine my Cat being forced into what many single women were so made to do. "And you're far more likely to get picked up by the runners if you're out there. The worse that could happen to you here is that you'd be expelled."

"And you two as well!" She said.

Charlie shrugged. "I don't mind. I don't like it here much to tell you the truth. All they seem to teach is how to bully and to be bullied."

"And you know I never wanted to come in the first place." I added. "Mama won't mind if I'm chucked out. Father would shout, but not for too long- not when he knows I did it to help you. So you see you'd be doing us a favor."

"You're both mad" Cat said for the second time. "Cracked. Addled. Raving" Cat continued. "And anyways, what happens when the real boy arrives?"

"That's weeks off yet. It seems to me that the most immediate problem is saving you from the runners." I said as I whisked the cap off her head watching her curls fall around her face. "Sadly I think we'll have to sacrifice this to the cause." I said.

"Yes Tom Cats don't sport ringlets." Charlie agreed.

"Shall you be the barber or shall I?" I asked Charlie.

"I'll do it." Charlie said taking out a pair of scissors from the desk drawer. "She doesn't know me so well yet and is not likely to curse me loudly when she sees what I've done."

"You're not . . .?" Cat stammered looking at me with her big green eyes.

"We are." I said seriously. "Unless you have a better idea." I challenged her. Cat shook her head slowly, avoiding my gaze. I bent down, putting my finger under her chin to make her face me. "Please Cat," I pleaded. "For my sake and for Lizzie. I don't want to visit you at Newgate. I don't make a very good prison visitor. I'm terrible at small talk."

Cat bite her lip, but responded grudgingly. "All right. You can cut it off."

"To be safe, I think we'd better cut it pretty hard." I said twirling one of her curls around my finger, for the last time before it was all gone. "You see, you don't look much like a boy Cat. Even with your cap on. What's your brother like, Charlie?" I asked praying he would be a scrawny, very feminine, ginger boy.

"Big- makings of a prize fighter." _Great,_ I thought. "Hmm. Well the measles has taken it out of him, that's all I can say. Your new brother Tom will be more in the angelic chorister mold."

I motioned for Charlie to start cutting and Cat clamped her eyes shut. I watched in silence as Cats familiar red locks fell into her lap.

"All right" Charlie said directing Cat to look in a mirror.

Cat's eyes went wide as she looked at her reflection. Her eyes filled with tears, and her face went paler than usual. I recalled a conversation I had overheard between my mother, and Lizzie, who were talking about Cat. I then remembered how she had told my mother that Cat had never believed in her beauty much, thinking that she was a coarse and scrawny orphan, though my mother and Lizzie thought that she was actually very pretty. I couldn't say that I disagreed, but realized how much this might take a toll on Cats already low self-esteem.

I left my place by the rug, and joined Cat in front of the mirror, putting an arm around her and hugging her to me. "What do you think?" Charlie asked me nervously.

"Not sure." I said examining Cat. "Still too damned pretty." I said, meaning it. With her hair gone, her green eyes were more visible than usual, though they were shinning with un-spilled tears.

Cat took one look in the mirror again before turning back around to us, and speaking calmly. "Look." She said, throwing my blanket off her shoulders, and showing us her scrapped hands and elbows. "My knees are the same. Is that more boyish for you?" She asked before turning back to the mirror and rumbling her hair so it stuck out in all directions. "Thomas Hengrave, please to meet you." Cat said in an imitation male voice, and sticking her hand out to be shaken.

Charlie walked over and shook her hand. "Pleased to meet you too, little bother, now let's get you some decent clothes and set this thing rolling."

**What did you think? I am thinking of continuing the Cat/Frank scenes of this book in Franks POV. Tell if I should do it in a review!**


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